SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Arsonists appear to be responsible for three fires during the past week that damaged nature reserves in southwestern Puerto Rico, U.S. investigators said Sunday. Authorities have ruled out spontaneous or accidental causes for the fires inside the two U.S.-administered reserves -- in Lajas and Cabo Rojo -- which are both habitats for the endangered mariquita bird. Separate fires that began Friday and Saturday inside the reserve in Cabo Rojo have burned about 12 acres, said Susan Silander of the federal agency's office in San Juan.

CABO ROJO, Puerto Rico -- Scientists on Wednesday urged hunters to refrain from shooting a migratory species of duck that has made a rare appearance in Puerto Rico. The gadwall, a North American bird that migrates in mixed-species flocks, typically spends winters in the Southern United States, Mexico, Cuba and the Bahamas. It was recently sighted in the western Puerto Rico town of Cabo Rojo. Hunting season begins Jan. 13 in the U.S. Caribbean territory.

CABO ROJO, Puerto Rico -- Scientists on Wednesday urged hunters to refrain from shooting a migratory species of duck that has made a rare appearance in Puerto Rico. The gadwall, a North American bird that migrates in mixed-species flocks, typically spends winters in the Southern United States, Mexico, Cuba and the Bahamas. It was recently sighted in the western Puerto Rico town of Cabo Rojo. Hunting season begins Jan. 13 in the U.S. Caribbean territory.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Arsonists appear to be responsible for three fires during the past week that damaged nature reserves in southwestern Puerto Rico, U.S. investigators said Sunday. Authorities have ruled out spontaneous or accidental causes for the fires inside the two U.S.-administered reserves -- in Lajas and Cabo Rojo -- which are both habitats for the endangered mariquita bird. Separate fires that began Friday and Saturday inside the reserve in Cabo Rojo have burned about 12 acres, said Susan Silander of the federal agency's office in San Juan.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Police arrested 10 illegal Dominican migrants Sunday after they reached Puerto Rico's western tip in a boat. Police found the migrants hiding in an abandoned house in Cabo Rojo, 110 miles west of San Juan, police said. The migrants, who were in good health, were to be deported shortly by U.S. Coast Guard officials, police said.

CABO ROJO, Puerto Rico -- A developer said this week that he is ready to break ground on a $2 billion resort that will be one of the largest solar-energy projects in the world. Monte Carlo Resort will be a complex of four hotels with 1,300 rooms and 2,700 villas, all able to generate their own electricity, developer Federico L. Carlo said.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Police arrested 10 illegal Dominican migrants Sunday after they reached Puerto Rico's western tip in a boat. Police found the migrants hiding in an abandoned house in Cabo Rojo, 110 miles west of San Juan, police said. The migrants, who were in good health, were to be deported shortly by U.S. Coast Guard officials, police said.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- A U.S. Coast Guard cutter detained six Dominican migrants and was chasing another boatload carrying more than 50 toward Puerto Rico on Wednesday, an official said. The Coast Guard cutter Venturous first stopped a small boat with six Dominicans before dawn, said Lt. j.g. Eric Willis, a Coast Guard spokesman. They were caught about 20 miles west of Cabo Rojo, a town on the southwest coast of this U.S. Caribbean territory, Willis said. The cutter was returning to the Dominican Republic to repatriate the six migrants but turned around when it received a report from a Coast Guard jet that another boatload of more than 50 migrants was spotted heading to Puerto Rico, he said.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- The oldest man in the world is from Puerto Rico, the Guinness Book of Records has reported. Emiliano Mercado del Toro officially became the world's oldest living man Monday, at the age of 113 years, 149 days. He was born Aug. 21, 1891, in Cabo Rojo, on the southwest tip of this U.S. Caribbean territory. Mercado now lives in Isabela on the island's northwest coast. He is also the oldest living veteran, London-based Guinness said.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Authorities detained seven illegal migrants from the Dominican Republic and were searching for more thought to have landed in this Caribbean U.S. territory, police said Sunday. Two migrants were found Sunday morning after they had landed in a boat on the southwest coast near Cabo Rojo. Police said they were searching for several more thought to have been traveling with them. On Saturday night, authorities detained five Dominican migrants aboard an 18-foot boat in waters off the west-coast town of Aguadilla, police said.

CABO ROJO, Puerto Rico -- A developer said this week that he is ready to break ground on a $2 billion resort that will be one of the largest solar-energy projects in the world. Monte Carlo Resort will be a complex of four hotels with 1,300 rooms and 2,700 villas, all able to generate their own electricity, developer Federico L. Carlo said.

VICENTE RAMIREZ, 81, 1937 South Blvd., Maitland, died Tuesday. Born in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, he moved to Maitland from there in 1976. He was a retired maintenance worker for a manufacturing plant and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Orlando. He was a member of the Elders Quorum. Survivors: wife, Serafina Cruz; daughters, Maria Teresa Cerezo, New York, Carmen Nydia Chavez, Maitland; son, Peter Solano, New York; nine grandchildren; one great-grandchild. Winter Park Funeral Home, Winter Park.